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Cougars Gearing Up For NCAA Tournament

THE COACHES: WSU - Dan Tobias has a 26-28-3 coaching record in his third season at WSU. Tobias is 10-16-1 in the Pac-10 in his three years. Prior to Washington State Tobias was an assistant at his alma mater, Cal Poly SLO, for four seasons (1994-97). The Mustangs went 56-21-4 overall while Tobias was with the program. MONTANA - The Grizzlies are coached by Betsy Duerksen who is in her seventh year at Montana with a 92-39-4 record. In her 10th year as a head coach she holds a 136-59-6 overall coaching record. Duerksen was the Big Sky Coach of the Year in 1999 and is ranked 20th in winning percentage (70.2%) among Division I coaches.

WSU VS. MONTANA: The Grizzlies hold a 4-2-1 advantage over the Cougs all-time, but in this years meeting on Sept. 29 it was WSU that was victorious, a 4-2 decision at Cougar Soccer Field.

ABOUT THE NCAA COLLEGE CUP: The Women's College Cup provides a 48-team, single elimination tournament. Twenty-one conferences were automatic qualifiers, six were involved in preliminary round games for three additional spots and 24 received at-large bids. Teams are paired geographically for preliminary competition on the campus of one of the participants. The four final teams will compete for the championship December 1 and 3 at San Jose State University in San Jose, Calif.

WSU IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: The Cougars have only had one other NCAA tournament appearance in the program's history, a 1994 berth that took them to Wisconsin where they won 3-1. In the second round the Cougs fell 4-0 against William & Mary in South Bend, Ind. This is the first NCAA event the Cougar soccer team has hosted.

MONTANA IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: This is Montana's second trip to the NCAAs as well. Last year the Grizzlies lost 2-1 at Texas A&M in a first round game.

COUGS IN THE RANKS: The Cougars earned their first national ranking of the season after upsetting Washington 1-0 in overtime last week. In Soccer America WSU is ranked 19th and in SoccerBuzz the Cougs sit at 21 nationally. For the last two weeks the Cougars have received votes in the national poll, but have not been ranked outside of the regional polls.

PAC-10 DOMINATES: Seven Pac-10 teams, more than any other conference, have been invited to the 48-team NCAA Soccer Championship. Pac-10 Champion Washington (17-2), UCLA (15-3-1), California (17-2-1), Stanford (13-5-1, USC (13-5-2), Washington State (13-6-0) and Arizona State (13-6-1) all received a berth into the tournament. Washington, UCLA and California all earned first round byes and will play Nov. 11 or 12 while the other four conference teams will host first round action Nov. 8.

WHAT'S NEXT: The winner of Wednesday's first round match-up will travel to Washington for the second round.Second seeded Washington will host the game Sunday, Nov. 12 at 12 p.m.

TICKET SALES: Tickets for Wednesday's game are on sale now. The NCAA mandates that hosts school's charge admission to NCAA events. Ticket prices are $7 for adults and $5 for students, youth and senior citizens. Student Sports Passes will not be accepted. Tickets will be sold at the ticket office in Pullman, at the CUB Monday and Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and by phone at 335-9626 or 1-800-GO-COUGS, option 3. Tickets will also be available at the gate.

WSU VS. TOURNAMENT TEAMS: WSU has already faced 10 of the 48 teams in the tournament during their regular season play. The Cougs hold a 4-6 record against tournament teams.

WSU UPSETS SECOND RANKED HUSKIES: The Cougars upset the second ranked Huskies last Friday in a 1-0 overtime game. The Cougs outshot the Dawgs 22-13 and finished the game in the 112th minute when Beth Childs knocked a corner kick into Liz Duncan who crossed the ball into freshman Kim Morgan who put it in the net off her chest. The win was a repeat for the Cougars, as they knocked off the Huskies 1-0 in 1998, the last time Washington made an NCAA Tournament appearance.

MILLENNIUM MAGIC: The Cougars are celebrating their best season since joining the Pac-10 and one more win would tie the all-time win record at WSU. At 13-6-0, the only other WSU team to do better was the 1990 team that went 14-6-0 as a member of the NCSC. At 5-4-0 in the Pac-10 the Cougars have set a new record for Pac-10 wins in a season. The previous high was four in 1998, Tobias' first year with the Cougs.

DEWITT SHOOTS OFTEN:Deka DeWitt, the only senior on the Cougar squad has been among the top 15 all-time in shots on goal in each of her four years as a Cougar, her 117 shots this season lead the way. She has 299 shots in her career, 20 more than the previous record-holder Kim Lynass (1990-93). DeWitt took 11 shots against Washington, a new match high, which ranks third in the record books. She is in the current records 34 times overall.

CHILDS TAKES CAREER ASSIST RECORD: Junior co-captain Beth Childs surpassed her previous mark of 15 career assists, which tied DeWitt for the record set earlier in the season. Her two assists at Oregon, both off corner kicks, boosted her to 17, which is a school record.

DUNCAN TIES SINGLE SEASON DISH RECORD: Junior Liz Duncan crossed in her eighth assist of the season in the 1-0 win over Washington to tie DeWitt's single season record. Duncan has nine assists in her career.

COUGS PASS WELL: The Cougars have two players with seven assists this season and one with eight. Duncan is tied for the record with eight and Childs and Katrina Stroh are each only one assist off. However you combine the three, they make the best assist combos in school history. The 15 assists between Duncan and either Childs or Stroh combine for more assists than any previous pair at WSU (Kim Lynass/Amy Wilson in 1991 and DeWitt/Christina Pallan in 1999 both had 12).

JORGENSEN NETS RECORDS:Lindsey Jorgensen, a junior co-captain and the Cougs starting goalkeeper, has broken away from the competition in the record books. She currently holds every career goalie record at WSU with the exception of GAA. She broke minutes in goal this season (5,182), saves (339) and increased her lead at career solo shutouts with 16. Her five shutouts this season equal her 1999 total and are one off of her personal record of six set in 1998. Jorgensen holds a 0.88 GAA this season and has grabbed 93 saves.

COUGS CELEBRATE YOUTH MOVEMENT: With nine freshmen and only one senior on the 200 WSU soccer team, the Cougars are young. Of the eight freshmen field players, four have started every game this season, and six have tallied points in either goals or assists this season.

SOLID DEFENSE IS KEY TO COUGARS GAME: In addition to the outstanding work of Jorgensen in net, WSU is strong on defense. With freshman Shay Hobby, who halted Washington's strongest scoring effort last Friday with a save in front of the net, the Cougars have a strong anchor in the backfield. In addition to Hobby WSU depends on the experience of Childs and sophomore Niki Ironside as well as the ball-winning ability of freshman Mariette Boyce. In 19 games the Cougars have only given up 18 goals, 0.95 a game.

OVERTIME ALL THE TIME: The Cougars have played in a school-record seven overtime games this season, five of them double overtime efforts. They are 4-3 in overtime games this season with their last OT effort ending in a 1-0 win over Washington. The previous record for overtimes in a season was four in 1998.

GRIZZLIES ENTER ON EIGHT-GAME WIN STREAK: Montana has won eight games in a row by a combined score of31-3, with five shutouts. The Grizzlies most recent victory came in the Big Sky Tournament, a 6-0 win over Northwestern State. The last game Montana lost was a 3-2 overtime effort at Sacramento State on Oct. 6.

PRESS CONFERENCE: There will be a press conference Tuesday, November 7 at 12:15 p.m. in the Sports Publicity Office with head coach Dan Tobias and selected players. If you need more information contact the sports information office. The Montana coach and requested players will be available Tuesday after their training session at 3 p.m. by request to Rebecka McKinney in the sports information office (335-4294).

POST-GAME INTERVIEWS: All post-game interviews will be held in Bohler 235. There will be someone from the media relations office to take media to the room following the game. Media will be asked to go as soon as the game has ended. Final statistics will be brought to the interview room. The losing team's head coach and a maximum of two players will go first, after a 10-minute cooling off period. The winning team's head coach and a maximum of three players will follow. The losing team will have 10 minutes and the winning team will have 20. Only individuals with the appropriate credentials will be allowed in the post-game interview area.

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Photographers will be required to stay in the designated photo area and wear a photo vest that will be distributed at the pass gate. Credential pick-ups can be arranged with Rebecka McKinney (335-4294).